1,000 more building jobs go; IN ASSOCIATION WITH Rensburg Sheppards.

Byline: BY HOLLY WILLIAMS Daily Post Correspondent

HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey confirmed yesterday it has axed a further 1,000 jobs as it said property sales slumped by 27%since the beginning of July.

The recent raft of job losses brings its total cull to nearly 1,900 in the UK this year.

And Taylor Wimpey offered little hope of better times as it warned there was no immediate end in sight for the property downturn.

Yesterday's grim update came as figures suggested the number of home sales in the UK had fallen to at least a 30-year low, according to the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Taylor Wimpey reported net reservations of 165 on average a week since July 1, despite slashing prices to maintain sales.

Britain's biggest house builder said its order book stood at 6,607 homes - 40%less than at this time last year. Taylor Wimpey also cautioned of a potential further hit to the value of its land and building stock on top of its hefty write downs announced at the half-year stage.

Taylor's build rate has slowed to around 40%of normal levels as it has adapted to the new property market conditions. It said it now hoped to keep prices steady for the next few weeks after meeting internal sales targets through price cuts so far this year.

But it added: "We remain of the view there will not be a recovery in the UK housing market in the short-term.

"We welcome the significant interest rate reduction announced last week and are hopeful if this is passed on to consumers, then it will help the market to return to stability more quickly."

Taylor Wimpey revealed in August it racked up pounds 1.54bn in losses for the first six months of the year.

It dived deep into the red after writing off pounds 586m from its UK land portfolio and more than pounds 816m linked to goodwill recognised from the pounds 5bn merger between Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey last year.

Housing market being stifled by mortgage drought

THE mortgage drought is continuing to "stifle" the housing market, pushing sales down to a new record low.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said the average chartered surveyor estate agent sold just 10.9 homes during the three months to the end of October.

The group blamed the slump in transactions on the current mortgage squeeze.

The group's comments came as figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed the number of mortgages taken out by people buying a home fell to a new record low during September.

The situation shows little sign of improving, with figures from the Bank of England showing the average cost of a tracker mortgage soared to a seven year high in October, despite interest rates falling.